Ground #378 - Hull City Stadium

Date: 3rd March 2023
Ground: Hull City Stadium
Location: Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire

My third new ground of 2023 was on Friday 3rd March at the Hull City Stadium in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire. The game was Hull City vs. West Bromwich Albion in the Footballl League Championship.

The Hull City Stadium, currently known as the MKM Stadium, is located in West Park which as the name suggests is to the west of the city centre. It was built in 2002 on the site of a cricket pitch and is surrounded by parkland. The stadium is a mile west of Hull railway station and became the home of the club in December 2002 after upgrading from Boothferry Park where they had played since 1946.

The Hull City Stadium is an asymmetrical bowl with a lower deck the whole way round which can hold around 20,000 spectators with an additional second tier of seating in the West Stand increasing the capacity to just over 25,000. The stadium has been designed so a second tier could be added to the East Stand to up this capacity to 30,000 if the club became established in the Premier League. The additional western deck means the roof slopes down from this stand to the remainder of the stadium.

With the West Stand being the 'main' stand at the ground this is where the club reception is situated. The only hospitality area at the venue is in between the upper and lower decks on this side. The west side also houses the Dugout Bar which offers private event space for up to 400 people. The ticket office and club shop reside on the eastern side of the ground and there is other office space dotted throughout. The northern and southern ends are more basic but do have large TV screens hanging from the roof for both. The large footprint available to the ground means it has spacious concourses and good legroom for fans.

The game saw two out-of-form sides competing with Hull sitting in 16th with no wins in four and West Brom sitting in 11th with one win in four. The visitors started the brighter of the two sides and created three good chances in the opening twenty minutes. First Jed Wallace's cross to Marc Albrighton resulted in a bobbled shot requiring a good save by Karl Darlow as the ball headed for the corner of the net. Shortly after this the two combined again with Albrighton bringing the ball down well on the left side of the box before laying off to Wallace to shoot straight at Darlow. 60 seconds later Darlow was needed once again saving a Daryl Kike header from Albrighton's cross. It was therefore against the run of play that Hull took the lead. A ball upfield was headed down by Benjamin Tetteh to Regan Slater. As Slater attempted to slide Tetteh back in West Brom's Okay Yokuslu stuck out a foot but could only divert the ball straight into the path of Tetteh on the left of goal. With a lot of work to do Tetteh turned and smashed the ball first time in the top corner of the net to see Hull lead 1-0 at the break. The second half started much as the first had with Darlow saving his side - the ball went down the right side of the field and Jayson Molumby's cross found Dike who shot low at goal from six yards. Darlow was again up to the task diving low and keeping the ball out. Hull went up the other end in the 56th minute and created a similar scenario to the goal with Benjamin Tetteh taking a fierce first-time shot with Josh Griffiths pushing over for a corner. From the resulting corner the Tigers scored their second of the game with Baggies defender Dara O'Shea heading backwards into his own net from Ozan Tufan's cross. The visitors continued to attack and came closest in the 64th minute when a John Swift cannoned back off the post. West Brom had a couple more speculative efforts but these were also saved by Darlow. The Hull keeper put in a man-of-the-match performance on the night and was a big reason why the Tigers secured all three points.

Result: Hull City 2-0 West Bromwich Albion

Division: Football League Championship

Attendance: 17,021